Undergarment



F. A. COHEN UNDERGARMENT Jan. 8, 1946.

Filed July 23, 1945 INVENTOR FRANK A. Comsw Patented Jan. 8, 1946UNI-TED UNDERGARMENT Frank. A. Cohen, Brookllm. N; Y.

Application Jul- 1 23, 1943-, Serial. No. 495312 9.. Claims ljhisinvention relates to undergarments and, more particularly, to formconstricting and molding undergarments such as corsets; girdles and thelike.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a garment of thecharacter described in which an improved control panel, such as is shownin my eopending application for Form constricting and; molding garments,Serial No. 495,811 filed July 23', 1943-, is employed to mold the bodysymmetrically about an anchor line-running centrally down the front ofthe wearer.

Another object of the invention is to provide a garment of the characterdescribed wherein such control panel afiordsa variation in resiliencethroughout its height corresponding to the variation' in girthoccasioned at diiferent body levels upon movement of a wearer.

Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and in parthereinafter pointed out.

The invention accordingly consists in the features oi construction;combinations'or elements and arrangements of parts which willbeexemplifled in the construction hereinafterdescribed and of which thescope of application will be indicated inthe appended claims.

In-the accompanying drawing, in which there is shown one of the severalpossible embodiments of this invention,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a corset embodying=- my invention as itappears when worn, a portion thereof being broken away toillustrate theconstruction and location of the rear layer'of the control panel;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the inside of the corset, partly broken away toshow the location of the outside layer of the control panel; and- Fig. 3is an enlarged section taken substantially along the line 3-.--3 ofFig.2.

In my aforesaid co-pending application, I have shown a control panelwhich comprises two superimposed layers of equal widths and shapes Whoseside edges are registered and attached to each other; One of the layershas a vertically extendingarea of flexible elastic material adjacent oneside edge of the panel and the other layer has a vertically extendingarea of flexible elastic material adiacent the other side edgeofthecontrol panel. The remaining portion oi." each layer consists of avertically extending area of flexible inelasticmaterial. Thus eachelasticarea either overlies or underlies an inelastic area in the otherlayer so that when the control panel is stretched an inelastic areamoves. in a direction opposite to" that in which the. Opposed elasticlayer moves and since the control panel is curved. in use, this relativemotion is opposed by frictional rubbing of the superimposed layers. Asthe layers are of equal width, this friction comes into. im-. mediateplay: to increase the control eifeoted by t e panel, lessen the strainimposed upon. the elastic areas and aiiordmaximum control for the.quantity of elastic material employed. The clash tic areas are also ofequal width, and for this reason equally distribute the: strain,createia max-- i-mum of friction, and obtain maximum stretch: forgivenwidths. The expression of equal width'- is used in a'limited sensetoconnote equal widths. at the same horizontal level; i

Although a control panel of. this construction may extend oversubstantially the entireiront on rear of a garment, as shownanddescribed in. my said co-pen-ding application, I have found: that panelsso disposed, although tending to provide a certain desirable control ofthe figure in profile, do not maintain symmetrical. control about a linerunning centrally down the wearer's: front In accordance with thepresent. invention, as will now be seen, I have. incorporated myimproved control. panel in a garment in such manner that all thedesirable functions thereof are retain-ed and atthe same time thegarmentwillaflord such symmetrical control.

Referring now in detail to the-.- drawing," lit denotes a. corsetembodying the present invention. Said'oorset comprises a backsectiont2.of conventional construction consisting; for example, oi two. panelsM, [16"; each iariricated froma. flexible in elastic material. such aswoven cloth: which is stiffened by a plurality of" vertically extendingpocketed stays l8. The two back panels may be interconnected by a rowof. lacing on, such as. is usually employed in the art.

Twostandard. brassiere. sections. 22;. 24. may. be secured to the upperside edges; of each. back panel Hl E6; The freeedges of these sectionsare provided with hooks 26. and eyes 28 forxdetachahly securingthe;sections to. each other at the. front oi thebody and form, inconjunction. with. a top part of the back section l2, encmclin:bustsupporting handeam Gonventionalslmulder straps may; complete. the:upper part or thesesment.

In accordance with the present invention, the. lower" front part oi the;garment. It? comprises two control panels 32, 3.4, each. of whichembodies the construction illustrated and: described; in my saidctr-pending applicati'on,is e., each. control panel 32;, 34. comprises.a frontlayer Sit and marine: 38; Therfiront'layer includes a verticallyextend ing area of flexible inelastic material such as plain woven clothand consists of a plurality of strips 40, 42 of such material sewed toeach otherby a vertical line of stitching 44. Additionally, thisinelastic area may include a'vertically extending pocketed stay 46. Saidfront layer 36 also has a vertically extending strip 48 of elasticmaterial as, for example sheet rubber, lastex, or any' woven or knittedfabric which includes strands of a a resilientmaterial like rubber. Oneside of this elastic strip forms an edge of th front layer 36. a Therear layer 38 likewise includes a vertically extending area of inelasticflexible material which L" comprises a strip 50 of cloth, and avertically extending area of elastic material such as the strip 52 oflastex. Both the elastic and inelastic areas of the rear layer 38 aremirror images of the elastic and inelastic areas of the s'uperim-. posedfront layer 36. One side of the elastic strip 52 in the rear layer alsoforms one of the edges of said layer.

. The front and rear layers 36, 38 are of identical shapes and widths,the side edges being superimposed and attached to'each other'by verticallines of'stitch'ing 54; 56.

front layer overlies the inelastic strip 50in the rear layer and theelastic strip 52' in the rear layer underlies the inelastic strip 40 inthe front layer. In this fashion the elastic strips frictionally contactinelastic strips and relative move-' ment thereof must be effected whenthe garment isforced to change its; shape at such time as the body of awearer moves.

-The two control panels 32, 34 are of substantially similar constructionand configurationso that they exert substantially similar'degrees offigure control. 'Each controlpanel is connected at one side thereof toan edge of one'of the back panels, l4, I6 by a line of'stitching 58. Theother edge of-eachcontrol panel is stitched to an edge of' neof apairofcentral panels 60 on whose opposite edges there are disposed a pluralityof aligned attaching and detaching means, such'as alower series ofhooks'62 and eyes 64 and an upper series of sockets 'BB'andheaded studs68. The. stripof material to which these rapidly attachable anddetachable meansiare connected is of inelasticmaterial and defines alineextending vertically and centrally down the front of a wearer. Thisline. is stiffenecl and reinforced against circumferential"deflection bya pair of heavy metal strips on'which-th'e sockets 66 and studs 68 arepermanently and rigidly mounted. Said line serves as an anchor to bothsides of which the control. panels '32, v34 symmetrically control thefigure andv symmetrically yield to fig-' ure movement.

I have found that this constructionefiects an absolutely symmetricalmolding of the figure about aline extending vertically and centrallySaid front and back layers are so arranged that the elastic strip 48 inthe apex if desired. Since the strips 48, '52 are mirror images of eachother, as mentioned above, and since it is desirable to have the outeredge of the strip, which forms an edge of a control panel, ex-

tend almost vertically, the two strips appear to V slant in oppositedirections as clearly shown in Fig. 2. By tapering the strips in thismanner I provide a substantial degree of resilience adjacent the bottomof the control panel and gradually and uniformly decrease the degree ofresilience toward the top of said panel. This variation of resilienceand thus of figure control, in proportion to the distance from thebottom of the garment is highly advantageous. Heretofore where backs ofthe previous constructions, however, 7

down'thefront of the wearer, as distinguished from garments such asshown in my co-pending application which only control a'figureinprofile, and from garments employingsingle and double ply elasticcontrol panels which, due to unsymmetrical yielding of the panels, cancontrol neither in profile nor about the central line men tioned. .3 V Afeature of the: invention resides in the particular shape oftheelastics'trips T48, 52', comprising the .elastic areas of the-front.andback layers of a control panel. Thes strips are broad at" the bottomand taper upwardly 'in gradual I and substantially. uniform manner, to'apointed lies the inelastic area inthe back layer, and the a controlpanel of the type under consideration was employed the elastic areaswere of substantially uniform width. Such a control panel, dependinguponits size and resiliency, tended to exert either too strict'a control inthe region'of the hips or too little in the region of the. diaphragm.This was due to the. fact thatv on the On hand frictionalengagementbetween overlying elastic and inelastic panels was very hard to overcomeif a narrow area of elastic was employed, and on the other handfrictional engagement, did not exert a sufficient controlling influenceif a wide area of elastic was employed. .All the drawhave been avoidedby tapering the elastic panels upwardly as describedso that although thdiae phragm increases in girth but slightly upon move ment of the body,nevertheless, because the width of the resilient area is so slight inthis region, the frictional effect is almost immediately felt. Incontrast,- by employing an undue width of. elastic in'the region of thehips the frictional restraint exerted by the panel does not appreciablyafiect'the control aiforded'by the garment until a substantial change inthe girth of the garment at such point'is caused' by movement of the,

wearer.

-It will thus beseen that I have provided a gar-v ment in which.the'several objects of this invention' are achieved and. which is welladapted to meet the condition of practical use.

As various possible embodiments might be made it of the above inventionand as various changes might'be'imade in the-embodiment above set forth,it is to be understood thatall matter herein described or shown in theaccompanying drawing is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in apanel being of identical configuration and equal widths, the remainingportion of .each layer including a vertically extending inelastic areawhereby the elastic area in the front layer overelastic area in theback'layer underlies the inelastic area in the frontlayer 'andfrictionopposes are stretched in use. '1 1 2. An undergarmenaas set forth inclaim 1, wherein a side edge Of each of 'theelastic areas oppositemovement of the layers when the panels forms a side edge of the layer ofwhich it is a part.

3. An undergarment, as set forth in claim 1, wherein a side edge of eachof the elastic areas forms a side edge of the layer of which it is apart, wherein said layers are of identical configuration and width, andwherein the elastic areas in the front and back layers are mirror imagesof each other.

4. An undergarment, as set forth in claim 1, wherein the layers in apanel are of identical width and the elastic areas in a panel are ofidentical width.

5. An undergarment, as set forth in claim 1, wherein the elastic areastaper in width from the bottom edge of the garment upwardly.

6. An undergarment, as set forth in claim 1, wherein an anchor line isprovided in the garment extending vertically and centrally down thefront thereof along said fastening means.

7. An undergarment of the character described comprising a back sectionand a front section, said front section including two central panelsjoined to each other vertically and centrally of the undergarment by aline of rapidly attachable and. detachable fastening means, a verticallyextending metal strip in each of said central panels forming an anchorline running vertically and centrally down the front of the garment, anda control panel between each central panel and said back section, eachcontrol panel comprising a front layer and a back layer, said layersbeing of identical configuration and width and each including avertically extending elastic area adjacent a different side edge of saidcontrol panel, the remaining portion of each layer including avertically extending inelastic'area whereby the elastic area in thefront panel overlies the inelastic area in the back panel, and theelastic area 'in the back panel underlies the inelastic, area in thefront panel and friction opposes opposite movement of the layers whenthe control panels are stretched in use, the elastic areas of the frontand back panels being mirror images of each other.

8. An undergarment, as set forth in claim '1, wherein at least a portionof said line of rapidly attachable and detachable fastening means arerigidly and permanently secured to the metal strips.

9. For use in a garment of the character described, a control panelwhich includes an outer layer and an inner layer superimposed on oneanother and of equal widths and shapes, the side edges of the layersbeing registered and attached to each other, one of said layers having avertically extending area of flexible elastic material adjacent one sideedge of the panel, and the other of said layers having a verticallyextending area of flexible elastic material adjacent the other side edgeof the panel, the remaining portions of each layer comprising avertically extending area of flexible inelastic material whichconstitutes a major part of the layer whereby the

